Administering a medicament by injection is a process which presents a number of risks and challenges for patients and healthcare professionals, both mental and physical. Improper handling of medicament delivery devices may result in needle stick injuries. In any situation in which a patient or healthcare professional is required to manually attach/remove the needle assembly, there is a risk of needle stick injury.
In addition, manually attaching the needle assembly to the medicament delivery device can lead to over-tightening, which can result in injury when removing the needle assembly and/or structural damage to the medicament delivery device. Attempts to remove an over-tightened needle assembly can adversely affect other components of the medicament delivery device (e.g., in a reusable device, a cartridge holder may be loosened).
Further, manually attaching the needle assembly may lead to mismatch of screw threads, resulting in an obliquely-oriented needle. This may lead to a defective septum or to an inaccurate injection.
Thus, there is a need for a device for safely attaching and removing a needle assembly to/from a medicament delivery device.